In the light of the poll results, and my readings in the next parts of module 2, I think I will change my answer of the second part of the poll to be "yes" instead of "no". Because I came to know that I should answer many questions before I judge if this action is legal or not, as Melissa stated above that "is "unfair" does not mean that it is illegal".
The email, as well as the poll, contains no information about the company's policy and the Employee's handbook. We also need to know where the company is. All this will enable us to know more about the state laws, local laws, agreements, and policies and practices. Therefore, we will be able to know the legality or illegality of this action. Moreover, we still know nothing about the company's policies or employee's handbook, but we came to know, from the email, that the employees will be upset if this action took place. This should be examined well. This means that the employee may have no previous knowledge of the company's right to do so. The question here is whether this is due to employees' failure to understand their company's policy, or that the company was not clear enough in declaring its policy from the beginning. We should invest the reason behind the employee's reaction and see the legal and the illegal parts of it. Before this, I think we should know more about how the company will handle this decision. After that, the company's policy concerning wages, vacation, over time, part time and full time rights, and all employee responsibilities should be examined.
Finally, what comes up to my mind during this discussion is that if it turned out to be legal to the company to do so, how we can overcome the employee's bad reaction and uncomfort? I think this is another important section that we, as HR professionals, should handle with care. I think it's not enough to help the company with legal issues and that's it. We should put in our mind that if the employees are not comfort enough, and have the ability to achieve work/life balance and manage the extra stress they will suffer as a result of the extra burden they got, they will no longer be as productive as they used to be.